This Side of Paradise: Book 1, Chapter 3: The Egotist Considers Summary & Analysis

Amory’s shirt stud bruises Isabelle’s neck, and she becomes angry at him when he laughs. He realizes that he does not actually love her, but still wants to kiss her in order to be a “conqueror.” Amory tells Isabelle that he plans to leave in the morning. She calls him conceited and says he talks about himself too much. When Amory is upset, he wonders if it is just his vanity that is hurt. Amory leaves early the next morning without seeing Isabelle.

Amory returns to Princeton early in September because he failed a class in the spring and needs to take a make-up exam. Amory struggles to study conic sections in math and does not care enough to admit that he does not understand. After the end of his affair with Isabelle, Amory feels disinterested in academic success, even if it means being removed from The Princetonian and not being chosen for senior council. A week later, Amory finds out that he failed his exam.

After failing the exam, Amory becomes aimless and idle. Alec tells him that he was lazy, but Amory feels that he was meant to fail and revert to the “fundamental Amory”—who is lazy, “rebellious,” and “imaginative”—after two years of success and conformity at Princeton. Amory’s father, Stephen, dies, and Amory returns to Lake Geneva for the funeral. He feels unemotional about his father’s death but is worried that his family’s wealth is dwindling because of bad investments in oil.

Amory visits Monsignor Darcy at Christmas and admits that he wants to leave college, and that Kerry has asked him to join the army with him. Monsignor Darcy discourages him, saying that he is developing naturally and has become less vain. Monsignor Darcy explains to Amory the difference between a “personality” and a “personage”: the former is a consistent and unyielding entity, while the latter gathers experiences and learns from them. Darcy convinces Amory that he can have a fresh start, and Amory returns to Princeton feeling revived. At Princeton, Amory spends much of his time reading literature and writing poetry, and he withdraws from the social scene. Kerry leaves college to enlist in the army, which Amory admires.

Amory and Fred Sloane go to New York with two girls. At a bar, all except Amory are drinking, and Amory thinks he sees a pale, deathly man with curling pointed shoes watching him. They go up to one of the girls’ apartments, where Amory thinks he sees the same man, who is the devil. None of the others see the man and think Amory is hallucinating or drunk. Amory runs out of the apartment and down an alley. He shouts into the night, asking the spirit who is haunting him to send “some one stupid,” and suddenly the face of Dick Humbird appears to him. When Amory returns to Princeton, he and Tom are reading together when Tom sees the devil again behind Amory. Amory then recounts the events of the previous night.